Sugar millers from 3 states join hands to form panel

Cooperative and private sugar millers in Maharashtra have decided to form a committee with industry representatives from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Millers have been asked to commence exports at the earliest and fulfil their given quotas.

Cooperative and private sugar millers in Maharashtra have decided to form a committee with industry representatives from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka to work on issues currently plaguing the sector, top industry officials have said.

At a joint meeting of cooperative and private millers in Mumbai on Friday, which was headed by senior Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) leader Sharad Pawar, the decision to form a committee was taken. The committee would include the president, vice-president and director general of Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) president, vice president and the MD of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills in addition to some senior representatives from the industry such as Ajit Pawar, Harshavardhan Patil among others. Rohit Pawar, vice president, Isma said that the committee would meet sometime next week after which Pawar would seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to submit a joint representation from millers across the three sugar producing states.

The NCP leader stressed on the need to comply with the government policies and said there is no option before millers but to export. Staring at a bumper production this season and with good crop expected the next season as well, sugar millers in the state are grappling with the challenge of a huge inventory. The country would have around 80 lakh tonne of carry over stock after exporting the mandated 20 lakh tonne this season and another 5 lakh tonne is expected to be exported next season, Ajit Pawar said.

Millers have been asked to commence exports at the earliest and fulfils their given quotas. Last month, the government made it mandatory for sugar mills to export 20 lakh tonne sugar in 2017-18 marketing year as per the quota allocated to individual mills. Millers, however, are yet to commence sugar export due to lack of export parity. Millers have been seeking export incentives.